We don't seem to be finding much to agree on lately, Nik. You seem to think of the fashion jewelry market as a ripe piece of fruit, ready to be plucked by anyone with a good sense of design and a cool process. But it's a big industry that's mostly based in Asia nowadays, which has little interest in new designs and is intensely focused on cost of production. One can hardly blame Bathsheba for failing to take it over with her relatively expensive jewelry products that didn't resemble anything it is familiar with or cares about. Even now, all producers using 3D printing have only a microscopic share of this market, and that's when one no longer has to start from scratch when explaining what it is.

What she did produce are indeed wearable sculptures (I bought one about 7 years ago, and it did come with a chain). She's made a good living selling art, which is hard to do. Some of it was jewelry but it also comes in a range of larger sizes, She's stayed at the forefront of the 3D printing industry, trying out a wide range of processes from different manufacturers and making them work for her. She started a company that produced models of protein molecules, star clusters, and mathematical objects in solid pieces of glass. She's produced commercial items, like her popular Klein's bottle opener, and sold them via mail-order, using ads in Smithsonian Scientific American, The Atlantic, etc. She's also done lamps, puzzles, public art commissions, and designed her own software programs, originally to help her conceptualize new designs, and now as freestanding applications others can play with: http://bathsheba.com/bio/zoa/ .

It's hard to think of anyone lately who has combined artistic originality and brilliance with commercial acumen like she has. If she's a "fool", I want to be one too...

Here's a link to her site: http://bathsheba.com/

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com